Abstract:
The paper examines the pros and cons of the checkered nature of language
use in the Tanzanian Parliament. It focuses on language policy, language
choice and the practicality of language use in parliamentary discourse.
Right from the eve of independence, the medium of communication in the
Tanzanian parliament has been Swahili although the option is between
Swahili and English; Swahili has been and still is the preferred choice
among parliamentarians. Nevertheless, we observe that language contact
phenomena such as various forms of alternation between Swahili and
English occur quite regularly in parliamentary debates and submissions.
The paradox however is that various forms of documentation in parliament
are drafted in English. From data extracted from a corpus drawn from
issues of the Tanzanian parliamentary Hansard, the paper attempts an
analysis of particular choices, the advantages and disadvantages of such
choices and their impact on the Swahili language.
